Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Address: School of Arts, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH

Personal details

Biography

I am a lecturer in late medieval English literature, working especially on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I joined the English department at Leicester as a Teaching Fellow in 2008, having previously taught at the University of Sheffield and at Nottingham Trent University. I was appointed lecturer in 2013.

Qualifications

BA (Hons), English, University of Leeds at the College of Ripon and York St John

'Dutch influences on English literary culture in the early Renaissance, 1470-1650', Literature Compass 4 (2007): 1577-96

'Jan van der Noot: A Mistaken Attribution in the Short Title Catalogue?', Notes and Queries 53.3 (2006), 427

Research

I specialise in late medieval and early modern literature. My interests encompass various aspects of medieval and Renaissance culture, including drama, folklore, education, the supernatural and occult, medicine, mysticism, and connections between English and continental literature. I am particularly interested in the functions of violence in the later Middle Ages, and the forms it takes across different institutional and representational contexts. These concerns formed the basis of my AHRC-funded research project, ‘Violence in the Late Medieval Classroom’, and are explored more fully in my recent monograph, Punishment and Medieval Education. I am also the consulting editor for the online journal Peer English, published jointly between the department of English and the English Association.

My current work focuses on meditative prayer cycles in later Middle English, especially those connected with anchorism or other forms of enclosure. I have particular interest in the post-Reformation reception of these texts, and the ways in which sixteenth-century owners and readers interacted with their contents.

Teaching

EN1010: Reading English

EN2010: Chaucer and the English Tradition

EN2020: Renaissance Literature

EN2040: Medieval Literatures

EN2060: Concepts in Criticism

EN2302: Early Modern Fantasies and Fears

I also supervise undergraduate dissertations and contribute to a range of further modules on our BA and MA programmes.

Supervision

I have co-supervised doctoral work on Chaucer’s female readership, and would be interested in supervising PhD projects on any of the following topics: